How do you start building your book of clients in your mid 20s in commercial RE mortgage origination? Assuming you’re not part of a team
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Hey gurgle, what a lonely thread. I'm here since nobody responded ...so maybe one of these discussions will help:
More suggestions...
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
it's too bad that this question, which is a better path (than an analyst job at a REIT) to the kind of big money aspired to on this forum, gets radio silence. unfortunately i can't comment but there are a couple guys on here who could. there's a user here named Tariluna (not sure how to link to usernames... is it with an @ symbol? @Tariluna does that work?)
i feel like maybe PacNumber started as a debt broker maybe? @PacNumber
This isn’t strictly my field as I’m RE development but I do deal with the finance guys regularly. I am sure commercial RE agents could be a good source of intros to clients as they often point their clients towards finance sources in order to compete deals they are selling/buying. This is probably more common for smaller deals/deals where the client isn’t as experienced so doesn’t have the financial contacts.
One of my friends worked for a commercial brokerage for about two years before he went out and started his business. He started off with tiny deals (£100k - £200k) with clients buying small retail units etc. It has taken him a while to build his book but a few years later and he’s now doing bigger ones in the £3m range which is his sweet spot. His plan is to stick in this range and build volume rather than trying to do keep doing bigger deals. He’s also good a good book of bank lenders and private lenders. The private lenders are keeping him afloat at the minute due to the banks being strict with lending due to Covid.
Not really sure it answered your question but just my thoughts as it’s a good question.
Building a book is all about prospecting, nurturing relationships and continuing to prospect. Many younger / newer agents start with the cold call. This gets you in the door and your job as a new agent if you’re attached to a team or senior agent is getting meetings while the senior agent runs the meeting, signs up the deal, and closings it - with the new agent learning. Now that you have the client and finished the deal, you need to keep in touch regularly so that as the next deal comes around, they call you. Rinse, wash, repeat, you have your book. This is a very generalized overview. Everyone develops business differently. I began my career as an office leasing tenant rep and while some senior agents still cold called, others never did. Some people generated business via emails only others through networking events. It’s about finding your style that works for you.
Hey saw you started in office tenant rep, I'm doing that right now as a rookie. I'm cold calling right now and doing the drip campaign of quarterly follow ups. Is that how you built your book? Also, what are you doing now in real estate, just curious? Did you find tenant rep was difficult to transfer to buyside/development?
Focus on cold calling and networking. I can’t give much advice as I didn’t last very long in tenant rep. You figure out pretty quickly if it’s for you. It was probably the best place for me to start my career though. I created so many great connections in my city that even 7 years later, I speak to many people I used to work with on a weekly basis, some even daily. I transitioned over to the principal investing end of the business after tenant rep and now do acquisitions. It’s not a hard or easy transition - it’s just networking. I did a grad degree too which really helped move it forward. I think if you want to stay in leasing, you can go get a job in house doing leasing. If you want to move to something more finance oriented, a grad degree will make it easier. But you can do it without. I’m pretty sure there is someone on this board who posts pretty frequently that did tenant rep and switched to acquisitions. I would tag him/her I just don’t remember who it is.
If you don't work for a name brand firm (Meaning not well known, little if any inbound leads), then you're cold calling. Not that folks at the big firms don't cold call, but if you have nothing else, that's the most effective means to quickly get some deals in.
Dialing, canvassing, networking with developers, attorneys, CPAs, etc.. As with any other role like this, after 5 or 6 years, you have a good base of relationships and can take your foot off the gas business development wise and spend more time nurturing the relationships you've built over the years. I work with quite a few mortgage and IS brokers from all sorts of shops and this is generally how they've done it
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